With Glenn Archer, Shannon Grant, Jess Sinclair, Nathan Thompson, Leigh Brown, Kasey Green and Eddie Sansbury having left the club in the past two years, Laidley said the resulting lack of experience was costly when matches were in the balance.
Corey Jones, Shannon Watt and Daniel Harris, who remain on the list after playing in the 2007 preliminary final against Port Adelaide, were left out against the Bulldogs but the coach said the trio was eager to return.
"They're (Western Bulldogs) a terrific side … but the reality is and this is not a message in a bottle, 25 games ago we lost a preliminary final and off our list or out of that side is 1600 games worth of experience," Laidley said.
"Those guys (Jones, Watt and Harris) are working their backsides off to get back into the side… that's a remarkable turnaround in 25 games."
In return, Laidley said the introduction of youngsters including Todd Goldstein, Jack Ziebell and Scott Thompson was now the way forward for the Roos.
"We haven't dropped too many close games and this is not an excuse, but this is the future and this is the way that we're going and I reckon it should be exciting for our football club,” he said.
“And maybe perhaps I or the club haven't been really, really super strong in this message, particularly with the media.
"Our supporters who watch us every week get a clear vision of where we're going and what we're doing and we'll continue to go down that path.
“I reckon it's really exciting [to play the way we did against] a team, who I reckon is going to be right up there and to have a performance like that, I thought was really good.
"We'll learn a helluva lot from that and we'll really study the last five or six minutes and make sure we get better."
Laidley said he would also like to play Robbie Tarrant, Jesse Smith and Matt Riggio, but injuries prevented their inclusion at the moment.
He said the coaches had put "a helluva lot of work" into the mental side of the game with its younger players.
"[We've told them] to live in the moment and enjoy your role and don't be overawed by the occasion and I think they've been pretty good at doing that," Laidley said.
"We're going to continue to do it better and we're going to have our ups and downs, but this is the way we're going."
